Petrol v Deisel

kluivert

Simple, which is better Deisel v Petrol,

I am looking to up grade my, nothing like audi 3.0TDi something like the Golf, Astra or there abouts.

Is is worth paying the extra couple of quid for a deisel though. Would a 1.6 petrol be just as good as my 1.4 99 Astra feels slow under acceleration but good over 60mph.

prospect

Really is a matter of personal opinion. Also, the amount of miles you clock up per annum has an impact.
If you do very high mileage, diesel is the usual fuel of choice.

Personally, I much, much, much prefer modern diesel engines. Although my experience lately has been limited to the 1.6Hdi peugeot/citroen engine and the 1.9 and 2.4 fiat/alfa Jtd engines.

The mid range torque, particularly on the Jtd is phenomonal. The cars eat up the road, and in second, third and early fourth gears they pull out of bends and overtake beautifully.

My two cents...

fletch

I know this is probably not what you are looking for but if it's performance you are worried about then I wouldn't..
Last week, I drove an '05 BMW 320d and dear god the acceleration was nothin short of astonishing. Even got the traction control light to flicker a few times in the dry :eek:

bazz26

It depends on what mileage you are doing and what size engine you are looking at. I am having the same debate at the moment. I do around 25k miles a year and drive a 1.8 petrol, am definately considering a diesel when I change.

If you are doing less than 15k miles a year then probably best to stick to a petrol. The initial cost of a diesel which can be about €2.5k to €3k more expensive than the equivilant petrol will not be saved over a year or two if you are doing low mileage. Granted you get more out of a tank of diesel but you need to be racking up the mileage to get it back especially as diesel is almost the same price as petrol at the pump these days.

Then again some people just prefer to drive diesels as apposed to petrol.

Alun

As a life-long petrol car driver, I recently went over to "the dark side" and now I wouldn't go back. I find that when I'm just pottering about I drive in a more relaxed manner in a diesel, but when I need the oomph (i.e. torque) to overtake someone it's there in bucketloads.

kluivert

Its more or less the performance end of things i was after i was reading up on the Golf TDi 90bhp or 105BHP UK Spec and was thinking of getting one and getting the ECU re mapped for an extra 30bhp.

I was in a 99 Golf TDi 90bhp +30bhp (chipped) last week, my god the difference between petrol and deisel was incredible. It took off like a rocket, and i thought deisel cars where meant to be slow. I saw an Audi A3 04 1.9 tdi go from stand still at lights to a spec in the distance in no time.

high mileage doesnt seem to be a problem with deisels as the car above had 90k on the clock. I do no more than 15k a year, so would it be a better bet to go for a sporty car like the celica, FTO etc

Insurance is higher on Deisel cars as well. You cant have any fun in this country at all!!

ando

kluivert wrote:

Insurance is higher on Deisel cars as well

In my experience, I disagree with that. I got insured from a 1.4 Focus to a 1.9 turbo diesel for only €160 extra. For me to get insured on the petrol equllient (1.8 turbo) would cost me €1500 extra...

After getting the ECU remapped, my car is putting out 264 lbft of torque! and the best thing is, I get that torque at 2000 RPM... Its astonishing how fast the reaction is from the car at that rev range, it just goes, no buts about it... great for driving in traffic when your fighting for a spot, the petrol heads don’t have a chance unless their in high revs which you don’t do in real life city driving

The negative points are the Transit van sound, sometimes smoke from exhaust and the short power range (took a while to get used to changing at 4300 rpm)

SouperComputer

id love to go diesel myself.

I was looking at the owners manual for my 1.6 petrol passat. Basically, in comparison to the 1.6 petrol, the 1.9TDI was a second qucker to 60 and used on average 30% less fuel on a Per-Litre basis. Couple this with some shopping around for diesel and you are sorted. This is a 97 model too!

Only problem for me is being 24, I get laughed at looking for insurance on a 1.9L car.

25 next month though, so hopefully that will bear some fruit for me in the insurance realm.

The tax man

One thing made me stick with a petrol engine was the service costs on a diesel.
I wasn't going to be doing too much mileage and the cost difference between petrol/diesel at the pump wasn't going to save me anything in the long run and that was a few years ago when diesel was much cheaper.

ATM I drive both engines each day. Lurve the torque of the diesel,hate the noise and the narrow power band.
Lurve the steady feed of power with the petrol,lack of engine noise and the extra speed.

Hope you enjoy your new wheels.

HashSlinging

What I really like about the diesel is cainning it across the dublin mountains, via the steapest hills and just letting it RIP! its something special! the surge of power you get is just amazing.. I'll never get sick of it. Plus average about 38mpg! you really do get to eat the cake.